‘A miracle’: 3 fishermen rescued after boat capsizes in Lake Erie

Three fishermen were rescued after their boat capsized in Lake Erie on Tuesday, with one treading water for several hours until help arrived.

“It’s honestly a miracle,” Kelleys Island police Chief James Bartus told WJW. “The family came up today and they’re just blessed and happy that this all turned out the way it did.”

The men were fishing when a storm hit the lake. Their 17-foot boat capsized at about 3:30 p.m. ET, according to the television station.

“We had right around 5-, 6-, 7-foot waves,” Bartus said.

Two men, ages 81 and 78, hung onto the boat, but a 65-year-old man floated away, WJW reported.

According to a news release, the U.S. Coast Guard Great Lakes Coast Guard said that Station Marblehead rescued the older men, while Coast Guard Air Station Detroit assisted in the rescue of a third person near Kelleys Island.

According to the Coast Guard, a 45-foot boat fished the two men out of the water at about 7 p.m. ET. The men were transferred to medical personnel awaiting them on Kelleys Island.

“That’s when they told us that there was a third victim,” Bartus told WJW. “He had floated away last and they’d seen he had been floating away from the boat.”

Bartus said the third man had been treading water for nearly 4 1/2 hours before he was rescued, the Sandusky Register reported.

Bartus said the man had a seat cushion wrapped around his wrist “in a figure eight” so that he would be noticed by potential rescue crews.

“So that way if he did not make it, we would see the seat cushion,” Bartus told the television station. “He would wait for a wave to hit and he would yell for help and then the next wave he would spit out the water he’d taken in.”

Supported by an air crew, a Station Marblehead tow boat rescued the third man and transferred him to medical personnel at Station Marblehead, the Coast Guard said.

“We’re just glad to help and save some lives,” Petty Officer 1st Class Ashlyn Schmidt of Station Marblehead said in a statement. “Make sure when you go on the water to wear a life jacket, it could save your life.”

Bartus said the men were from out of town but fish in the area every year. He credited them for their resilience after they were knocked off their boat.

“You have to be a very tough soul to survive Lake Erie to begin with, especially for that amount of time in that water temperature,” Bartus told WJW. “That’s a blessing for sure.”

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